Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated immunoassay analyzer for assaying a number of test samples automatically and continuously.
Detection of a minute amount of biological substances by an immunological procedure, such as those embodied as diagnosis kit, has received a wide attention and attempts are being made to develop it. Since the test procedure is simple and tiresome, it is difficult for an operator to treat many minute samples and reagents with a high precision for a long time. Possibility of human errors due to different operators and an insufficient number of operators for the rapidly increasing number of samples to be tested has accelerated the need for automatizing the test apparatus for immunological reactions.
Processes for immunological procedures are different for different labels; thus, they include FIA using a chemical fluorescent material, RIA using a radioactive substance and EIA using an enzyme, each as the label. Therefore, in automatizing these test systems, the constitution and assembly of the apparatus must be adapted to the particular properties of the respective immunological reactions and the labels, and furthermore convenience in practical use and the cost of operation should also be taken into consideration.